The majority of students aren't using AI to cheat; they're using it to learn.
That was one of the takeaways from a panel that looked at the data on AI and learning, where researchers and university leaders sat down to sort fact from fiction on AI in education.
Annie Hale, executive director of the ASU EdPlus Action Lab, moderated the panel alongside Danielle McNamara, executive director of ASU's Learning Engineering Institute, Elizabeth Reilley, chief AI officer for the University of North Carolina, and Susanna Loeb, director of the SCALE Initiative at Stanford University.
Reilley pointed to recent research showing roughly 80% of student AI use is about learning new skills.
"That's not someone copying their assignment text into ChatGPT and then pasting out the response," Reilley said. "Our students who want to learn how to do something in Excel or be able to automate a process ask, 'Can you teach me how to use Google Apps Script?'"
Hale said that according to an ASU survey of 1,000 undergraduates, students are using AI as a 2 a.m. study buddy, to build flashcards and even design their own bots.
Loeb noted that concerns about using AI to cheat is the wrong thing to be focused on, and that assignments can be tailored to reduce the risk.
"I do think we have to change how we're thinking about it and give assignments where you learn. It's gotten so easy to create badly designed assignments that we have to change that," Loeb said.
McNamara agreed: "If you create assignments that invite cheating because they're not obviously a learning activity, students will use those tools to do it faster and do it better."
Reilley said that faculty are also finding benefits from using AI to create their coursework.
She pointed to a growing wave of instructors using AI to build interactive learning experiences from scratch with no coding background required.
"Our faculty is using AI not necessarily to create AI assignments for students where the students are using AI, but they're using AI to create interactive experiences that help students to learn," she said.
